Minimally invasive surgical techniques, also sometimes referred to as endoscopic or laproscopic surgery, allow a surgical procedure to be performed on a patient's body through a relatively small incision in the body and with a limited amount of body tissue disruption. For patients, minimally invasive surgery means less trauma to the body, less blood loss, smaller surgical scars, and less need for pain medication. Patients leave the hospital sooner after minimally invasive surgery and return to normal activities sooner than with conventional surgery.
Despite their many advantages, such endoscopic procedures are often limited to procedures within accessible body lumens or cavities, which may be filled with clear liquid or insufflation with a gas to provide an open area within which to place the operative endoscope(s) and instrument(s).
Thus, there remains a need in the art for the development of new methods and apparatus for accessing other locations within the body, such as a vessel adjacent a nerve, to permit the performance of surgical and/or interventional procedures without the need for forming any open surgical incisions in the body.